jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

TravelLight told me to list 10 things that start with the letter R.

1. Remoulade: We’re going to New Orleans in August and I plan on eating more than my fair share.

2. Rats: I think they get a bum deal. They’re just furry little mammals like gerbils or hamsters. I don’t want them in my house, but I don’t mind them on the subway.

3. Rogers & Hammerstein: I can’t get enough of The Sound of Music

4. Rice Cooker: Mine makes my life so so happy.

5. Rabbits! Rabbits! Rabbits!: The funniest part of one of the funniest tv shows I’ve ever seen, the British series Spaced.

6. Rome: One of the first international cities I visited. That summer kicked off the tradtional of travel my father and I continue to this day.

7. Rini: My grandma’s maiden name.

8. Random: The quality I embrace every day.

9. Rockefeller Center: I was lucky enough to work right on the center for a year and it made me feel continually grateful to live in New York.

10. Rutherford, Edward: He wrote one of my favorite books, Sarum.

If you’d like a letter, just let me know.

Almost all of our closest friends live in Atlanta. I’ve got one extra (my oldest and bestest) in Cincinnati and we’re about to have another in Phoenix. Here in New York we’ve got a few we really love, but aren’t quite as close to us as the Atlanta crew. There’s no one, for example, who is as comfortable at my place as at home (and vice versa). I miss my friends who would come over and just do whatever they like, fish around the refrigerator, talk on the phone, take a nap. I do know that can sound awful. But our friends were delightful folks who offered the same comforts and were just as likely to leave something in the refrigerator as take something away.

Many to most of our friends in Georgia are theater people. So perhaps other people just don’t tend to reach that level of informality. But I miss it.

So I’m going to make a more concerted effort to make some friends around here, both at work and around. Tonight we’re going to Andy and Annie’s apartment around 8:30 to get a pizza and watch a movie. That’s a pretty low-impact “first date” for friends. They’ve got a one-year-old, which is also appealing to me.

It really is like dating. Someone has to extend that first shy invitation, wondering if situational contact should be extended into intentional contact and hoping the other person isn’t thinking: Good lord, now I’m stuck. Then you spend time together and it’s hard to relax because you’re searching for that rhythm and feeling awkward. And then after a few tries if it doesn’t click you get discouraged about the whole business and go back to hanging out at home.

So tonight is Annie and Andy, and I’ve laid the ground work with our health editor Carin so that some time soon we can double date. Her boyfriend is a muscian and former (and perhaps future) actor, so they may hit it off.

I think our apartment is messier than it has ever been. It’s so messy that I woke up at 4:30 this morning because I just needed to start chipping away at the chaos. Back to it!

Tonight Damon got home just late enough for me to start planning the funeral, which is about 8:30. That’s not really a big deal as he’s often late and I don’t sweat it. He’s a wanderer.

But in my relief that he was alive I opted to watch our TiVo’d Amazing Race sitting on his lap. Some time before the Detour Sam came ambling in to take up his usual spot on Damon’s lap. How I wish I’d had a camera to capture his face, gazing up at me in his place. Those limpid, gimlet eyes just fixed and unwavering, trying to understand.

Allow me to digress off the top, and I will get back to Elton John.

I walked to the post office near my office yesterday (watch your mailbox steakums and dinoczar). Every once in a while I re-realize how much I love the post office. All I have to do is give them a couple of dollars and they’ll take something pretty much anywhere in the US. Could there ever be a better deal? I’ve been on a rampage of sending books, as some interesting stuff has crossed my desk lately. And, of course, there was the afore-blogged cookbook sale. I’ve started to recognize the clerks and I feel affectionate toward them, as they’re the first stop in my parcels making it home. My Dad got the Kauai photo album I made for him this morning and it was the best part of my day to talk to him and hear how delighted he was. He says I’m a genius.

So in walking back I crossed through the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, which is about a block from my office. I was passing by when I saw the big Elton John banners hanging outside and recalled that there’s a display of some of his most famous outfits (I believe they’re being auctioned for charity, but could be wrong). I like Elton John. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan, but I can definitely sing most of his songs. I’m particularly partial to Mellow, The Bitch Is Back and Honky Cat. I like to sing Honky Cat to Zoe.

Anyway, the first floor actually feature a collection of costumes from the newest show on Broadway, Lestat. Elton John scored it or something. I think the show will probably be pretty bad, the reviews certainly say so. But the costumes were either intersting, lovely or both. Lots of intricate beading and smart details — all very romantic. You can imagine, very vampirey.

I went up to the second where they were keeping the Elton John clothes. The costumes were definitely some of the most famous ones, as I recognized most of them. No duck suit though. Most of them were designed by Versace. Here’s the weird thing — they all looked so cheap. Not like they’d been worn hard and showed it. They looked like something you could rent from a costume shop. I don’t understand this. I’m no fashion maven, but I recognize things like fine detail or exquisite tailoring. I mean, the zippers weren’t even hidden. I wish for every girl reading this at least one dress with a truly hidden zipper. It’s a luxury you don’t even know you love until you have it. There was nothing I saw there that rose above the quality of my college theater department’s costumes. In all fairness, my school had an exceptional costuming department and the stuff was usually gorgeous.

What I wound up loving was the photography. There were huge blowups of album covers and they were just so striking. I particularly loved Madman Across the Water.

If all this was not enough Elton John (it really was) I could tune into The Today Show this morning, since it gave him a full half hour as a kickoff for Lestat. Care to read that sentence again? A morning news program gave away half an hour to hype a show. Today has always been my favorite by a mile. I’ve never even considered watching anything else in the morning. I don’t confuse it with hard news, but I generally think they do a good job and they get serious when they need to. So I was just agog when I heard the segment intro this morning. It sounds almost immature to say, but I was so disappointed, so disillusioned. To me that was no different than sticking a half-hour infomercial into the programming. Why don’t they give half an hour tomorrow to Suzanne Sommers and her Thighmaster? I’m sure they had to make all kinds of concessions to get Elton John on the show. But for god’s sake, it wasn’t worth it. I flipped over to Everybody Loves Raymond. Now I don’t know what I want to watch in the morning, but it’s not going to be channel 4, at least for a while. Maybe I’ll write them a letter.